The Official Venmo Blog

October 02, 2012 · by Venmo

Engineers from team Venmo were delighted to participate in App Challenge Chicago, hosted by Singly and Braintree this past weekend. The goal of the hackathon, which was open to the public, was to bring together members of the Chicago tech community, entrepreneurs, designers and developers, to help take ideas from a pitch to a launchable product in just one day.

We are happy to announce that several of the projects developed at the hackathon used the Venmo API and our Software Development Kit (SDK). The winning project and the recipient of a cash prize, paid via Venmo of course, was “Forgift” an electronic version of the traditional birthday card with check enclosed. Other hacks include: “Blackmail For Friends (BFF),” which lets you post an embarrassing video and charge your friends to keep the link a secret, and zRacyBike a bike racing app that lets you make a bet and pay the winner via Venmo. Click here for a complete list of hacks.

In addition to the cool projects, the event also provided Venmo engineers with a chance to chill with our partners at Braintree and learn about their office culture. Our engineers dined on some of the best Chicago burgers and fries, and jousted with swords and scooters while they waited for their code to compile. Our own Danny Cosson spent his downtime flying a toy helicopter around the office: “that was a highlight for me,” he said.

On behalf of all of us here at Venmo, we want to thank Braintree and Singly for hosting the event. For more information about how you can build on the Venmo SDK and integrate payments into your app, check out our API page.